Haytham joins Victoria from Cairo, Egypt where he discusses the current situation and how it is revealing deep complexities within the Egyptian socioeconomic system. He uses bread, and food distribution as the starting point for discussing these complexities as it consistently circles back to questions of how we eat, sustain ourselves, and take care of one another during these times. He poses difficult decisions that Egypt and much of the Global South are facing such as, "do we die from the virus, or do we die from the starvation?" This somber question resonates and is felt deeply within this conversation, but Haytham very exceptionally addresses these difficult time within his artwork and teaching, through actions of empowerment and protest.
In this episode we are joined by Karamjit S. Gill, Founder and Editor of AI&Society. Gill discusses his journey with AI&Society how efforts were focused on filling a vital gap – one that was leaving people in marginalized communities out of the dialogue for social context surrounding art, science and technology. Since then, his work as a Professor and Editor have continued to foster the development and structure needed for people from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to come together and share ideas. He considers the pandemic to be a pause that still invites us all together to talk about critical issues and bridge these gaps of distances. His advice to media students and artists during this time is to engage with technology for what it can do for you, and not what you can do with it.
This is a very special conversation and is not to be missed.
We are joined by Hadley Arnold of Arid Lands Institute and Divining Lab who talks with us about designing innovative, intelligent and data-driven systems for water security in the arid world. Hadley discusses her personal journey through the arts and humanities which have led her to understand how art, science, and history can be utilized as complementary tools to enhance the effectiveness of design. Hadley and Victoria also talk about the impacts of climate change on our water systems, and how the pandemic has exposed both vulnerabilities and possibilities for our society.
Robertina joins us from Ljubljana, Slovenia and talks with Victoria about her shifting work and experiences brought on by the pandemic. Robertina is particularly interested in the how the environment is responding to the pandemic, noticing what species and sounds are returning to the river and how this changes the audible ecology. She has been creating a sound archive of these changes while considering what type of ecological data might come out of all of the slowing. This conversation also navigates a changing artworld as museums and galleries shut down globally and prompts artists to consider how to generate new and meaningful markets. Robertina is actively negotiating these changes by localizing her practice – focusing on her immediate community and environment to enact and empower positive change. Robertina reaffirms that art and science collaborations are even more essential during and after this pandemic and her current work, focused on the sound-scape of the Adriatic Sea, is a clear demonstration of this. This heartfelt and interesting conversation is not to be missed.
What is the material interface of the pandemic? Sarah Brady addresses this question in her work and teaching practice at University of California, Santa Barbara and discusses her experiences and current thoughts with Victoria Vesna. Sarah is interested in face-to-face and tactile exchanges between humans, emphasizing this as an essential component of research and her art practice. In the face of the pandemic, however, Brady is having to figure out new modes of material interaction. Brady is prompting her students to think creatively about technology – beginning with the body – seeing how the body can be used as an override through the zoom platform.
As a multiracial First Nations and Xicanx artist, Sarah shares information about her home communities, who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 due to a substantial lack of relief efforts and support. This conversation is vital and brings issues such as, who has access to materials, resources, and technology to the forefront. Sarah’s work, teaching and research lead us down a radical path that compassionately confronts these many issues.
ROGER MALINA, NINA CZEGLEDY, JOEL SLAYTON MARÍA ANTONIA GONZÁLEZ VALERIO - HOSTED BY DANIELLE SIEMBIEDA AND VICTORIA VESNA
"If you create chaos in the system, that opens for change, but who can take part in that change? What if the change is in the wrong hands?"
(Danielle Siembieda)
The second edition of Post-Pandemic Provocations, hosted conjointly by Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/(ISAST) and the ArtSci Center features the incredible Provocateur cast consisting of Roger Malina, Nina Czegledy, Joel Slayton, Victoria Vesna, Danielle Siembieda and features special guest María Antonia González Valerio.
This entangled and entirely provocative conversation disobeys conventional thinking urging listeners to think critically and deeply about the current situation we are facing internationally. Stemming from the pandemic, this conversation pays specific attention to local re-thinking as we negotiate the post-pandemic condition. The diverse group begins with critical theory about body politics and intentional disobedience then dendritically branches off into discussions of chaos and change, xenophobia in the human and the more-than-human worlds, empathy as a form of protest and informal economies and innovation. This conversation, and the multiplicities of opinions will take you on a wild (and necessary) ride into the complexities of our now.
In this episode we are joined by the ever-inspiring María Antonia González Valerio a philosopher and professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), who invites us to really look at and consider how we are responding to the pandemic in our institutions, in our bodies, and in our communities. María Antonia is interested in our incapacity to stop, to slow down and questions why we as humans have responded to this unprecedented circumstance with the mentality that we must continue business-as-usual. She proclaims, "Let the extraordinary be extraordinary! Why are we so afraid to stop?"
María Antonia also strongly urges us to resist the normalization of online teaching and education. Within her experience, this platform greatly limits interactions and community-building which are the aspects of education that truly allow for learning to take place. When our eyes and sense of ourselves and one another are limited to a 2-dimensional screen, we lose our bodies, we lose our transmission of affect and connection. This conversation and ideas provoked by María Antonia and Victoria is a reticent call to action, reminding us to remember the phenomenology of our bodies, to step back into ourselves and to reconnect to the physical and each other.
In this engaging episode, Claire Farago speaks with urgency about the Climate Crisis advocating that we think of ourselves relationally, to the world and people around us, and not individually. She provokes, "how do we build support for planetary citizenship?" Nudging further that art and science collaborations are critical for building this future, Claire and Victoria take a deep look through art history, discussing works and examples of how throughout time collaborations and interdisciplinary thinking has produced novel and thoughtful advances. This is a wonderful conversation that is packed full with stories, information, and lessons. It is surely not to be missed!
In this episode, Takashi joins us from Tokyo, Japan, and addresses how he interprets the global events occurring right now and how one event can shift everything. He discusses one of his interests in going beyond human perception in both spatial and temporal scales, and how it is applicable to the pandemic. Two pressing issues we face today, climate change and the virus, are both beyond our temporal perception, as climate change is on a scale of thousands of years, and in comparison, the virus is a few nanometers in length. Takashi also contemplates how we can bridge the large gap between the digital and real worlds, something increasingly prevalent in the time of the pandemic as we work from home, thinking about how Coronavirus is a good opportunity to update the way we understand things. He asks how we can understand the world without storytelling and discusses how AI has the ability to help us go beyond storytelling. This engaging conversation about the role of the intersection between art and science in current events is not to be missed.
Takashi Ikegami is a professor in the Department of General Systems Sciences at the University of Tokyo. His works encompasses both the arts and sciences and deal with complex systems and artificial life. He received his doctorate in physics from the University of Tokyo in 1989. His research is centered on complex systems and artificial life, a field that aims to build a possible form of life using computer simulations, chemical experiments, and robots. Some of these results were published in the book Life Emerges in Motion in 2007. Takashi Ikegami frequently attends the International Conference on Artificial Life, and gave the keynote address at the 20th Anniversary of Artificial Life conference in Winchester, UK. He is also a member of the editorial boards of Artificial Life, Adaptive Behavior, BioSystems, and Interaction Studies.
We are humbled to be joined by George Quasha who immediately invites viewers and listeners to slow down and settle into their bodies and place and truly listen. Quasha is careful and conscious with his speech and semiotics believing in the power of language as a world-maker or world-breaker. In this regard, Quahsa speaks with "quantum awareness" understanding that, even down to the molecular level, interactions are the basis for our language and therefore our existence. Throughout this conversation he tells stories of his experiences working trans-disciplinarily as a poet, artist, musician and how those multiple places allow for open-ended understandings of the surrounding world. He discusses his own theories and revolutions rooted in his artistic and mindful practices.
