Opportunities and challenges of new interdisciplinary initiatives

By Cissy Sun, Head of Art-Science

On 11 August, the final edition of Art x Science Dialogues: Bridging the Future – New Interdisciplinary Initiatives was held via Zoom. Prof. Sarah Kenderdine, Director of Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+) & ArtLab EPFL, Ms. Maximiliane Okonnek, Managing Director of ETH Library Lab, and Prof. Zhijie Qiu, Dean of the School of Experimental Art of CAFA shared with us their art-science practices and also had a collaborative discussion on the opportunities and challenges in building up such initiatives.

We trust that everyone has acquired informative insights on the topic. Due to the time constraint, we could only present a limited number of questions. If you have further questions for our speakers regarding their respective new interdisciplinary initiatives, please email us at artscience@swissnexchina.org. We will try our best to forward them to the speakers.

The webinar recording is available to view and download here.

The webinar slides are available to download here.

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Here are some key event takeaways that we would like to share with you.

Research and projects at eM+ & ArtLab EPFL

eM+ is a new transdisciplinary initiative at the intersection of immersive visualisation technologies, visual analytics, aesthetics and cultural (big) data. eM+ engages in research from scientific, artistic and humanistic perspectives and promotes post-cinematic multisensory engagement using experimental platforms. It has 8 unique visualisation systems combined with powerful sonic architectures that are benchmarks in the realms of virtual, augmented, mixed realities.These cluster-based 3D systems have been deployed in major exhibitions and installations throughout the world.

Attached to the EPFL College of Humanities (CdH), ArtLab presents temporary and long-term exhibitions that bring the world of science and the Humanities closer together. It also houses a Montreux Jazz Café in which it is possible to consult the festival’s audio-visual archives.

Jazz Luminaries is an interactive fulldome installation featuring 5400 artists of Jazz, Blues, and Latin music connected through more than 30 800 links. Reclined under the fulldome in a hemispheric gestalt, participants unfold an experience based on the social network constellations of jazz luminaries from the Montreux Jazz Archive. This installation based on the UNESCO Memory of the World collection, digitised at EPFL, cuts, remixes and replays 5’400 jazz greats and over 13’000 videos.

The Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive is a longitudinal research project, initiated in 2012 in collaboration with the International Guoshu Association, City University of Hong Kong, and the Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+), Digital Humanities Institute, EPFL. The project encompasses the first-ever comprehensive digital strategy of archiving and annotating a living kung fu tradition using state-of-the art data capture tools. In addition, this archive will become the wellspring of exhibitions and installations that promulgate rich cultural traditions.

ETH Library Lab

The ETH Library Lab is a joint initiative of ETH Library and the Library of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). It started its operations in the middle of 2018.

ETH Library Lab strives to advance information infrastructure and services for science, research and education. By boosting related ideas, practices and strategies, the initiative contributes to future scientific work environments.

The ETH Library Lab Innovator Fellowship support for visionary talents. The Lab welcomes thinkers and doers, whose ideas have the power to reshape workflows and information environments for the future of science. As an Innovator Fellow you will be able to bring your idea to prototype level backed by inspiring mentors, experts and scientists. The fellowship program is open to international applicants, and the call is currently on for the next year. (Click here to read more)

Beneath the Sea – a Multidisciplinary Journey is one of the projects that supported by the fellowship program. Beneath the Sea aims to develop an optimized structure to host coral larvae and marine organisms. The project goal was to create a prototype for an artificial reef structure made of sustainable material and using digital fabrication methods.

Art-Science Practices of Prof. Qiu at CAFA

In collaboration with JD Artificial Intelligence Lab, Prof. Qiu has conducted several AI & art projects. One of them was a novel real-time, collaborative, and interactive AI painting system, Mappa Mundi, for artistic Mind Map creation. The system consists of a voice-based input interface, an automatic topic expansion module, and an image projection module. The key innovation is to inject Artificial Imagination into painting creation by considering lexical and phonological similarities of language, learning and inheriting artist’s original painting style, and applying the principles of Dadaism and impossibility of improvisation.

He also trained an AI artist – Xia Yubing together with Microsoft Asia Research Institution. The AI artists was trained to learn how to draw by studying the work of hundreds of artists. Most are based on the post-impressionist and early modernist movements, explained Prof. Qiu. The artworks of Xia Yubing were presented at the graduation exhibition at CAFA 2019 and the works are very well received by the audience. And now an app is developed that you may type in the keywords for the AI artist to generate paintings for you in a few minutes.

Apart from these projects, Prof. Qiu also initiated Education, Arts, Science & Technology (EAST) season at CAFA in 2017. During this season, there will be international conferences, exhibitions, workshops and visits. It’s been an important platform for exchanges and collaborations in art-science field.  

Q & A Session

What are the impact of your initiatives of the host universities and what are the challenges of building up such initiatives and operating the projects?

K: If you have artists leading the vision together with scientists, you’ll have the potential innovations that otherwise will not be possible. And the thinking is very equivalent at EPFL, the university is very technical oriented but the recognition of creativity is fundamental to make it work. The ArtLab project was to make this relationship visible, and to tangibly connect art and humanity people to the science and tech community. It has a profound impact on the two communities to work together and the result is rewarding.

O: It is important at ETH Zurich to facilitate the students with an open, innovative platform that the students do not only focus on their own field. But talking about challenges, sometimes it is difficult to put people from different disciplines together, you’ll have to find the common ground and be familiar with their own languages from both sides and coordinate in between.

Q: At CAFA, I’m still trying to build up the ecological system of art-science. In China, people talk about media/new media art a lot for the past 20 years, but it is too narrow if you only focus on that. And I’m trying to build up the concept of science & technological art instead of media/new media art for our students. They should be aware of biotech, earth science, advanced math etc. and I’m happy to see that in recent years, the scientists, big companies in China start to recognise the importance of art and they are open to collaborate in art-science projects.

Connecting the dots between holistic mindset and sustainability practices

By Cissy Sun, Head of Art-Science at swissnex China

On July 16, 2020, our 19th Café des Sciences Lecture – Connected, naturally was held successfully at Wework Chengdu. This was our first offline event co-organized with Consulate General of Switzerland in Chengdu and was the first Café des Science Lecture hosted outside of Shanghai. Over 50 guests showed up despite the heavy rain. The inspiring talks by Hans Galliker and Song Shu on holistic mindset and iterative systemic shift of the Circular, Sharing- and Knowledge Economy were very well received by the partners and audiences.

Due to the time constraint, we could only present a limited number of questions. If you have further questions for our speakers regarding eco-village practice, sustainability research and the concept of “internet of mind”, please email us at artscience@swissnexchina.org. We will try our best to forward them to the speakers.

We would like express our appreciation to our speakers Hans Martin Galliker and Song Shu for sharing their valuable insights, and also to thank the Consul General of Switzerland in Chengdu Conny Camenzind, and Yufei Niu for the strong collaboration, and WeWork for providing the amazing venue!

The presentation slides are available to download here.

The photos of the event are here.

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Here are some key event takeaways that we would like to share with you.

Sustainability practices and research to foster eco-villages

Presented by Hans Martin Galliker, Independent ecopreneur-in-residence at Huadao Ecovillage

Before diving into the topic, Hans shared with us his personal experience with three pillars in his life: agriculture, fashion and technology. Throughout the years, he has grown his interest in organic agriculture and environmental technology. Since 2019, Hans Galliker became an ecopreneur-in-resident at Huadao Ecovillage near Chengdu in order to foster their sustainability-related efforts. More recently, Hans co-founded the social enterprise Urban-Rural Bridge which promotes permaculture and is preparing the launch of a farm-to-table app for cooperatives including simple farm management.  

Located in Chongzhou, Chengdu, Huadao eco-village is comprised of a living area with green buildings which have been built to adopt the traditional Chinese courtyard style of western Sichuan and contain individual family apartments and a communal open space and kitchen. The eco-village applies a very sustainable and sophisticated living system to its resource management, which includes regional biodiversity, green planning, water retention, energy conservation, and the refusal of unnatural land treatment. People who engage with this community learn how to share and cooperate with each other in a harmonious ecology.

During his residence at Huadao, Hans supports sustainability-oriented initiatives such as implementing a zero-waste strategy or fostering resilience of the whole ecosystem. He is also deploying private clouds, business software and also organizational self-management solutions for the eco-village. He gave a few practical examples of how the concept of circular economy, sharing economy, knowledge economy and holacracy system are applied in the eco-village.

And last but not least, the five points from Hans for everyone to remember:

Elevate your ecological consciousness with the Internet of Mind

Presented by Song Shu (Yingbing Zhou), Manager and educator for NatureDao

Song Shu grew up in Xichang, Sichuan, in an idyllic home next to a river and a mountain. His parents planted a companion tree for him when he was born. He moved to Chengdu for his studies at Southwest Jiaotong University and graduated with a Master degree in Communication Engineering. He then embarked to work in the technology sector for more than a decade, dedicated to microelectronics and networking, with a focus on IoT (Internet of Things). However, when the new life was brought to his family, he started to re-think about education and nature, and he changed his career completely. He became the co-founder of the life education company NatureDao.

Inspired by the “Internet of Things”,  Song Shu developed the concept of “Internet of Mind” (IoM) and he compared the the two networks to explain how it works. To connect to the “IoM”, he suggested us to improve sensory perception through joining activities related to six senses and by learning from nature, learning in nature and learning for nature. He also shared his personal practice and experience on how to balance the movement and peace and adjust inner process. He built up a secret garden at his home and he spent much time with his son in the nature. And now he’s working on his new book “Internet of Mind”.

Q & A Session:

(To Song Shu)

I think your studies and research on Mind is very creative and groundbreaking, would you please explain more about your concept of mind?

-       It’s very difficult to define as it’s different in Chinese and English. In Chinese, we use the character “心”, it’s the heart.

-       We also have the philosophy of the three parts – “身、心、灵”，which is body, mind and spirit. Body is the part to interact with the world, mind is to interact with people, and the spirit is to connect at a higher level.

-       Mind is too wide, so maybe it’s more accurate to use the word – consciousness.

(To Hans)

As you have traveled to a lot of places, why did you choose Huadao as your eco-village? Would it be easy to replicate the model of Huadao eco-village to other places in China or around the World?

-       In my entrepreneur journey, I realize that I’m not a good manager but I’m good at supporting and working with others. I also realize that I don’t have to invent everything by myself, I’m more looking for communities to work together with. And Huadao offers a good occasion.

-       Huadao is one the two eco-villages in China recognized by the Global Ecovillage Network, the other one is in Hangzhou. They are both nice, but far from being perfect.

-       The eco-village mode has just started in China, and is behind the whole eco-village movement. But China is going to develop fast as the leading direction is towards sustainability and the young people in the big cities are eager to be connected to the nature and to the community.

-       Ecovillage is a good answer to a lot of problems that we have in the modern world. I think there’s a potential for a lot more eco-villages to develop in China. And I’m ready to support with my background and expertise. 

From left to right: Cissy Sun (Head of Art-Science at swissnex China), Conny Camenzind (Consul General of Switzerland in Chengdu), Song Shu (Manager and educator for NatureDao), Hans Martin Galliker (Independent ecopreneur-in-residence at Huadao Ecovillage)

Photography, Technology, & Environmental awareness

By Cissy Sun, Head of Art-Science

On July 2 2020, our 3rd Art x Science Dialogues focusing on Photography x Environmental Ecology was held via Zoom. Ms. Laure-Emmanuelle Perret-Aebi and Mr. Lats Kladny, Founders of Compáz Studio and Ms. Yining He, writer and curator on photography guided us through their works and practices in their field and had an inspiring discussion on the possibilities that the combination of art, science and technology could bring to raise the public awareness of environmental issues.

From top to bottom and left to right: Laure, Lats, Yining and Cissy

We trust that everyone has acquired informative insights on the topic. Due to the time constraint, we could only present a limited number of questions. If you have further questions for our speakers regarding photography and environmental ecology, please email us at artscience@swissnexchina.org. We will try our best to forward them to the speakers.

The webinar recording is available to view and download here.

The webinar slides are available to download here.

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Here are some key event takeaways that we would like to share with you.

Where Art and Science Meet

Presented by Laure-Emmanuelle Perret-Aebi & Lats Kladny, Founders of Compáz Studio

Compáz Studio was established in Neufchâtel three years ago, aiming to bring about discussions on science, art and technology, and also to bring up projects that will have positive impact on the society and transform the technology into art. Since Laure has a solid scientific background in Chemistry and has worked in Photovoltaic field, they’ve worked on a lot of new technologies, especially transforming the solar panels into building elements and they also try to improve the implementation of solar technology in our daily life.

Photography and solar technology both use sunlight. Inspired by the nature, Compáz Studio started the Photo-Synthesis project. Photo-Synthesis are works of art powered by the sun, figuratively and literally. The top layer; “the art”; is a representation of plants, nature’s undisputed masters of photosynthesis: the process of converting light energy into chemical energy. Alternatively, solar panels; the artwork’s substratum or canvas; is man’s answer to plants’ ability to harness the power of the sun. Not by storing it as sugars, but by converting it into electricity.

The special film covering the standard solar panels are developed in recent years in the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) in Neuchatel. This film has a particularity to be transparent for given wave length of the light, which means the light could go through the film and the image to reach the solar cells to produce the electricity. This artwork offers a different angle of solar technology.

They emphasized that when we talk about photography and environmental ecology, it is very important that we could bring aesthetics to technology.

From Waters to Mountains: Three Environmental Ecological Projects from Sino-Swiss Photographers

Presented by Yining He, Writer & Curator

Yining has been writing, translating on photography for years, and is also actively engaged in the contemporary photography scene by curating exhibitions, organizing public programs and reviewing works as judges for contests and awards in photography field.

The exhibition she’s currently working on is “Between Mountains, Hills, and Lakes”, supported by Pro Helvetia and swissnex China. The exhibition will be touring to Design Society Shenzhen, Modern Art Base, Shanghai and Three Shadows Photography Center Beijing from August to December 2020.

The exhibition takes the geographical environment of Switzerland as a metaphor. It will examine the photography and related media works related to the country's society and culture from different dimensions such as geography, myth, science and technology, and daily relevance.

Yining introduced photographic projects from Chinese photographer – Haishu Chen and Lanqin Zhu, both joined the residency programs in Switzerland. Haishu has a special focus on the waters in Switzerland while Lanqin were inspired by the mountains there.

Photo by Haishu Chen

Photo by Lanqin Zhu

Yining also gave a special introduction of Swiss photographer Christoph Oeschger based in Zurich, whose work reflects on the environmental issues and politics.

Photo by Christoph Oeschger

Discussion and Q&A Session

As a team of artist and scientist, how do you think about the current relationship between human and technology?

• It is our responsibility to question about technology. We have many technologies that are important and we absolutely need them. But sometimes, it is important to ask if the technology is really necessary. And also think about for what kind of society we would like to build for tomorrow.

• Technology is coming out from human, we have the responsibility to take care of that. And art can contribute, not to give answers but to open questions.

Backstage at swissnex China office

Sonic Arts, Science, & Consciousness

By Percy Chen, Junior Project Manager Art-Science

On June 2, 2020, we hosted our 2nd Art x Science Dialogues titled Sonic Arts x Neuroscience. Mr. Luca Forcucci - Chair of Laser Nomad and Independent composer, artist, and scholar - and Ms. Jo Ying Wei - Curator, researcher, and founder of Pan Bio-art Studio - went in-depth on their practices in Sonic Arts, Bio Art, as well as their collaborations with engineers and neuroscientists.

From top to bottom and left to right: Luca Forcucci, Cissy Yiwen Sun, Jo Ying Wei

We trust that everyone has acquired informative insights on the topic. Due to the time constraint, we could only present a limited number of questions. If you have further questions for our speakers regarding sonic arts and neuroscience, please email us at artscience@swissnexchina.org. We will try our best to forward them to the speakers.

The webinar recording is available to view and download here.
The webinar slides are available to download here.

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Here are some key event takeaways that we would like to share with you.
From Mr. Luca Forcucci’s speech (starts at 5:08 in the recording):

• Luca Forcucci is interested in exploring the connections between visual mental imageries, sonic imagination, and sound perception.

• Pauline Oliveros, an American composer and a central figure in the development of experimental and post-war electronic art, is one of the first references in the field. He introduced the term auralization for visualization – seeing a sound image.

• Roland Barthes, a French literary theorist and philosopher, also makes a distinction for hearing and listening. “Hearing is a physiological phenomenon; listening is a psychological act.”

• The first part of Luca’s research started in the Amazon Rain forest in 2008. He spent two weeks there to explore night and day ambient sounds of the forest. In October 2014, Luca presented DE RERUM NATURA to transmit his research and experience.
  

• In 2009, Luca spent 9 months to research on Out of Body Experience through sound. Similar researches during that time focus primarily on visualization and Luca wants to see how sound fits into this model.

• In 2012, with artists from Shanghai, China, Luca participated in the Sonic Arts Exhibition to discuss different forms of listening and how language influences our perceptions.

• In 2015, Luca went to Djerassi Foundation & Leonardo/ISAST in Woodside, Silicon Valley CA, USA, to explore ideas about sound perception, consciousness, experience, and embodiment.

• Same year, in San Francisco, Luca (Composition & Live Electronics) worked with two artists Cheryl Leonard (DIY Instruments) and Crystal Sepulveda (Dance). The idea was to use body as a source for music: Luca takes performance dancer’s physiological data, namely electromyography (EMG), as an inspiration for composition.

• Same year in November, Luca traveled to South Africa for another immersive listening experience in nature. He mentioned the importance of having a biologist in the group to identify and explain different animals they encounter in the wild. The information helps him understand the habitats and listening mechanism of many things in nature.

• In 2016, Luca created an installation at the Red Bull Station Residency. A table filled with water in a bustling area of a city. Focusing on the surface of the water, one can see the movements of the wave, representing all sound in the vicinity.

• In 2017-2018, Luca went back to South Africa for an attempt to combine ancestral technologies and electroacoustic forms.

• In October 2019, Luca finished his latest work “alerta !”, which is supposed to be presented at the now cancelled New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival.
  

From Ms. Jo Ying Wei’s speech (22:20):

• Jo Wei is a curator and researcher at Central Academy of Fine Arts in China.

• To give a quick introduction of her work, Jo went over one of her courses at CAFA: Bio Art: Art and Neuroscience. The course has four modules – basic knowledge of brain science; archeology of brain-machine & technical base of EEG; philosophical training & cognitive science; proposal discussion & course exhibition.

• Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a scientific device that shows brain waves of individuals.

• “Glimpse: a passing look” is an installation where each audience wear the EEG device and stare at paintings. The room light will change color depending on the mood and subsequently the brain state of the audience.

• Zen Machine, a CAFA campus Exhibition in 2019 is another relevant project. Qi Chen, one of the artists, presented a brainwave project to help patients with disorders of consciousness using the EEG machine.

• Another piece “Time” uses EEG to interact with a clock. The clock with adjust its interval based on audience’s brain activities.

• There are a lot of topics in the intersection of human knowledge and brain science that artists can explore, for example dream, sensation, and consciousness. And there are many forms to present as well, such as interactive installation, generative art, performance, and sound arts.

• Ethics is also important in bio art and art in general. Last year at The International Conference on Education, Art, Science and Technology, the “Editable Future” workshop talked about the legal controversies of the Genome Editing Technology.

From the Q&A session (40:40):

Q: What prompt you to purse the intersection of sonic arts/bio art and science?

Jo: I was trained both as a curator and scientist. I see bio-art as a field with a lot of potential in China. That is why there are currently a big number of related conferences and exhibitions. I feel lucky to be involved. Additionally, many reputable Chinese institutions such as Tsinghua University, show deep interest in the field. Overall, Chinese society is ready to accept art and science.

Luca: on my end, it is more of an accident. Since I was a kid, I have always been involved with music. At some point, I ended up with a producer for the BBC, who is also blind. We started to discuss a lot and at some point, things become together. I was invited by universities to conduct research. At that time, not many researches are based on sound. Yet the subjective experience of listening really attracts me.

Q: Do you think visual art can be listened to?

Luca: Yes. It is all about waves. When we see things, we are also seeing waves. It would be an abstraction.

Jo: I agree. With the current technology and imagination, we are only starting to see the possibilities.

In the end, we would like to express our great appreciation to Mr. Luca Forcucci and Ms. Jo Ying Wei for sharing their valuable, expert insights. We would also like to thank our community for your great engagement as always! The next Art x Science Dialogues event will be on Photography x Environmental Ecology on July 2. Please stay tuned for our next event!

Carbon Circulation & the Current Climate Crisis

By Percy Chen, Junior Project Manager Art-Science

On May 21, 2020, we hosted our 17th Café des Sciences webinar titled The New Carbon Consciousness. Ms. Karolina Sobecka went in-depth on the concept of “carbon”, carbon circulation in different forms, and what we as ordinary citizens can do to alleviate the current climate issues.   

We trust that everyone has acquired informative insights on the topic. Due to the time constraint, we could only present a limited number of questions. If you have further questions for our speakers regarding design and materials science, please email us at artscience@swissnexchina.org. We will try our best to forward them to the speakers.

The webinar recording is available to view and download here.

Left: Karolina Sobecka; Right: Percy Chen

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Here are some key event takeaways that we would like to share with you.

From Ms. Karolina Sobecka’s speech (starts at 3:56 in the recording):

• Karolina is a researcher on the Swiss National Science Foundation project Cycles of Circulation project at Critical Media Lab Basel.

• Cycles of Circulation is a four years project that focuses on presenting Ecology through climate governance lenses and creative practices.

• Cycles of Circulation starts with ambient air capture, essentially extracting carbon dioxide from the air and turn liquid carbon dioxide into fertilizers.

• Through simulations of our current ecological and sustainability practices, scientists do not see a way to bridge the gap between what the world can achieve and the kind of reduction we need in order to stay under the global warming threshold (2 degrees Celsius). Therefore, the emerging CO2 capture/removal technologies have been deemed necessary by scientific assessments to play this vital role and fill in the gap. And as a result, a new industry has been created to utilize the captured CO2 products.

• What is carbon and what is a carbon cycle?

  Just like how we think about “nature”, we understand “carbon” through metaphors - it is something we do not see in the world, an idea that has to be constructed in some way. It follows that carbon consciousness ought to be a collectively held idea that entails a new mentality of modalities such as sensory perception, memory, and thinking. More importantly carbon consciousness carries value judgements of what is good and what is moral. 

• How we define the problem influences how we find the solution. For example, if we define climate change as an unfair distributions of carbon, then we want to find a technical solution to displace carbon from one place to another. On the other hand, if we define climate change as a result of the fossil fuel economy, then we ought to focus on a solution that works the social-political aspect of the fossil fuel industries.

• Around 1920, CO2 was viewed as a benign substance that could be used as fertilizers. Nowadays, the connotation changes drastically. Measuring how much CO2 content in the air is a job for science whereas what we define good and bad is a job for society and us.

• Being carbon conscious entails being environmentally conscious – behavior driven by environmental concerns - but there is an added element of the concern for carbon.  

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From the Q&A session (46:00):

•  We cannot think about carbon without thinking about the products of carbon, such as diamonds and pencils.

• Chinese philosophy and culture have traditionally put a lot of emphasis on “nature”. For example, in Taoism, the concept of “Chi”/“Qi”/“Ki” (气) is a mysterious life force that animates the universe, the force that sets the world and everything into motion. Additionally, Chinese have always used diction that contain elements of nature. Chinese emperors addressed their land and people as “Under the sky” (天下).

• That being said, with the advent of industrialization and later globalization, the position of nature has shifted in the global discourse. Whereas in the past we considered ourselves to be protected by the sacred nature, nowadays we view nature as resources and currencies that are there for us to exploit.

• The current world situation and stay at home policies have made many realize just how much waste they produce every day and week.

• However, the trendy lifestyles to go zero waste and zero plastic have very limited impacts on individual levels. One can save all the plastic bottles he or she wants, but they are already produced. The luxury wear brand Burberry, for instance, discards all of its unsold commodities annually, wasting all the materials and manufacturing resources in the process.

Percy during the Q&A session

The team behind the webinar: Cissy Sun on the left and Florian Moeri on the right.

In the end, we would like to express our great appreciation to Ms. Karolina Sobecka for sharing her valuable, expert insights. We would also like to thank our community for your great engagement as always! Please stay tuned for our next event!