semeiotica recombining contemporary art, design strategy and life science
Archive for proposals
August 14, 2008 at 10:39 am · Filed under Uncategorized, boundary objects, community interaction design, interdisciplinary, making it public, proposals, teaching and learning
So here is something neat: I was recently appointed a Senior Researcher at the UCLA Art |Sci Center. I’m currently working on a community website for the Leonardo Education Forum, and organization focused on promoting the intersections of art, science and technology– particularly in educational contexts.
Here is a brief for the project:
How do individual perspectives and group identities impact the development of diverse collaborative networks such as those exemplified by the Leonardo Education Forum? The Leonardo Education Forum is composed of educators, artists, scientists, designers, historians and students from many regions of the world and of diverse ages, backgrounds and perspectives. The main objective of the research is to create an online portal for individuals and groups to find common ground through which they can develop interactions and perspectives that will allow them to establish long-term and robust collaborative and interdisciplinary relationships. Diversity refers not only to the disciplinary affiliations that characterize, for example, artists, scientists, historians, sociologists and designers, but also to different age distributions, regional, and language-based perspectives in addition to the opportunities afforded by differences in socio-technical networks.
We endeavor to create a space that shares events and opportunities for individuals to identify and take part in–i.e. to model behavior across time and space. There is a social networking aspect that seeks to make visible that spaces and regions in which these people, events and opportunities are available so as to extend an existing global network of interactions and perspectives on the relationships of art and science. In particular, we are interested in making best-practices in projects and pedagogy visible and available for students and educators that seek to establish methodology for cross-fertilization among disciplines. Of particular concern are areas of technology whose relationship with individuals is complex and where solutions tend to be controversial (e.g. nanotechnology, climate change, genetic engineering, analysis of human behavior, etc). These tend to be spaces where the interactions among diverse domains are both most necessary and less clearly articulated. They are also areas in which the Leonardo Education Forum can provide creative models for these interactions.
February 20, 2008 at 8:57 pm · Filed under interdisciplinary, making it public, proposals, teaching and learning, technology
Sometime this evening (Bangalore standard time) HASTAC and the MacArthur Foundation announce the winners of the digital media and learning initiative. Last October, CEMA submitted a proposal designed to create knowledge-networking at the intersections of art, science, and technology. You can read the main part of the proposal below. Things like these always seem a both awkward when you’ve been distanced from it for awhile, but it’s surprising just how closely the proposal matches our activities these days. In upcoming posts, I’ll be writing about and sharing images from some of those activities.
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The IDEOGRAM project proposes the development and implementation of epistematic architecture for knowledge-networking at the intersections of art, science, and technology. Epistematic architecture is information technology that scaffolds our ability to create new knowledge. We intend to make visible the connections, activities, and characteristics of the Leonardo/ISAST network and its affiliates, to learn from them, and to recontextualize this knowledge into solutions for doing informal science. Our goal is to connect the benefits of digital media and learning to underrepresented communities, provide creative mechanisms for redressing their concerns via informal science, and incorporate these concerns into the epistematic architecture project.
We propose to situate the project in the CEMA lab in Bangalore, India (see below). This will facilitate additional perspectives as we implement social frameworks and technologies to reach our goals. In this manner, we hope to more closely involve local individuals in India whose disengagement with science and technology can stimulate creative interactions and help bridge knowledge-networking gaps.
The Leonardo network is composed of 8000+ individuals and organizations from across the globe and whose engagement of science and technology characterizes their creative work. Using existing and lab-built technologies, we intend to make the network’s creative activities available as a medium for understanding how science and technology are leveraged in the cultural landscape. For example, what are individuals looking at, searching for, reading or doing? Do the metaphors used to couple knowledge vary with age? We will connect these semantic patterns to inform tactical media projects and recontextualize digital media and learning for local situations. Tactical media solutions could involve anything from creative visualizations and physical computing to social technologies.
Combining the characteristics of digital networks with local epistemologies and embodiments creates scaffolds for positive interactions among groups typically isolated for reasons of geography, age, or educational level. Scenarios for these interactions include:
- Artists, philosophers and space scientists from six countries working to provide data feeds for informal science during an upcoming mission to the moon,
- Retired scientists and policy makers working with cultural entrepreneurs to find new opportunities for engaging the public over health issues,
- Artists working in tissue culture create a meatless steak from one’s own cells, thereby providing a personal protein alternative for vegetarians, or
- Engineers and artists developing an inexpensive and portable science lab for schoolchildren to informally explore their world in and beyond the slums of India.
The exciting thing is that aspects of these scenarios are already being carried out. However, because the information/epistematic architecture linking these activities is solely the result of volunteer work, they have lacked the financial and institutional support necessary to bring them to a critical level of exposure.
Contributions to the field of digital media and learning include some of the methods we will use to accomplish this goal.
- Recognizing identities, behaviors, artifacts, and environmental influences that characterize knowledge-networking at the intersections of art, science and technology.
- Identifying objects that permeate community boundaries and coordinate diverse concerns.
- Creating new relational and interactive opportunities.
- Using individual and community characteristics to suggest opportunities for building connectivity across educational, national, income-level, and disciplinary boundaries.
- Semantic networking and making individual concerns visible can suggest emerging trends, paradigms, and models of cultural introgression.
- Questioning model knowledge-networkers to assess their relative roles as translators, naïve participants, and/or catalysts.
- Antagonizing new models of scholarship and peer-review to make use of digital media and create opportunities for underrepresented scholars.
January 24, 2008 at 11:23 pm · Filed under Design, complex systems, design ecology, ecoregionalism, interdisciplinary, proposals, technology, visual culture
The Emerging Economy Report is coming! This is a project I’ve been working on over the last few months. It’s been in development for almost a year and a half and represents research in seven countries, all of which have been identified as emerging economies. An emerging economy is a country that is experiencing sustained economic growth as a result of rapid informationalization and limited or partial industrialization. Economic growth in the information economy will continue to be driven by these emerging economies who will benefit from rapid informationalization, innovation, and ephemerilization of the economy, leapfrogging many of the requirements and costs of the Industrial Revolution.
We’ve been working to develop insights into global trends and user perspectives across seven nations including: India, China, Indonesia, Kenya, Brazil, Egypt, and South Africa. By examining specific case studies, visual research, economic trends, and user perspectives on (among other things) technology, access to information, heathcare, and economic resources, we have been able to create strategic knowledge for those wishing to do business in these emerging economies.
The 7 emerging economy countries studied in this report account for 46% of the world population. The report offers a variety of innovative recommendations that will help businesses engage with these economies.
Visit emergingeconomyreport.com to find out more.
March 10, 2007 at 10:17 am · Filed under interdisciplinary, proposals, teaching and learning
A&D Life Mini-Grants
With support from the Rackham Graduate School, A&D Life is pleased to be able to offer small project grants in support of activities that make bridges between art, design, and life science-related concerns. Small grants of up to $300 are available to teams whose projects share the concerns of A&D Life.
The focus of A&D Life is to:
1) understand the diversified viewpoints and approaches that structure creative engagement with the life sciences,
2) identify historical and contemporary precedents for work in these areas,
3) employ these theoretical and historical connections as catalysts for creative practices,
4) register creative work as research that documents the complex, shifting relationships of art practice at the interface of contemporary social and scientific endeavor.
Up to three (3) such grants are available and will be awarded on a competitive basis. Funds may be used for materials and/or expenses related to the project. Recipients will be asked to provide a brief presentation of their work (in progress or otherwise) at an A&D Life workshop.
Requirements:
Teams must be composed of at least two individuals including at least one faculty member and one graduate student.
Applications should not exceed a one-page description of the project, research, or creative work to be carried out. Include a list of team members, and a brief list or description of the interdisciplinary connections or network to be realized.
Applications may come from any Rackham department or school-associated teams. Please submit proposals by February 25th to gharp@umich.edu
DEADLINE EXTENDED
January 17, 2007 at 11:07 am · Filed under boundary objects, interdisciplinary, proposals, sculpture, thesis
This is an exhibition proposal for Palmer Commons. I am in the process of building a medium-scale architectural piece that I think would fit and function well in the Windows Room on the third floor. The installation is in partial fulfillment of my work towards the MFA degree in the School of Art & Design. A reception may be planned to celebrate the installation/opening.
CLICK HERE FOR {images of the installation/sculpture}
Its approximate dimensions are 12′ L x 8′ W x 10′ H.
Its weight is between 250-500 lbs.
My thought is that the piece could sit in the 16′ space between the two central pillars closest to the windows facing Washtenaw in the Windows room–extending slightly (approx 8 ft from the center of the pillars) into the central space. As such it would be visible and attractive to passers-by. Electrical outlets are the only input needed, and I’ve noted the multiple outlets at the bases of the pillars.
I am expecting to complete the piece by the end of February with proposed installation in mid-March. How long the piece is installed is negotiable-though my aim is three-four weeks.
Please let me know what I can do to make this work out. My contact is available in the right-hand side column. I’ve already contacted and communicated with Mr. Barcena, and if possible, I’d like to arrange a time to meet to discuss the matter as soon as you are available.
