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Ecodata – Ecomedia – E...

Ecodata – Ecomedia – Ecoaesthetics

The Role and Significance of New Media, Technologies and Technoscientific Methods in the Arts for the Perception and Awareness of the Ecological.

The SNSF funded research project Ecodata–Ecomedia–Ecoaesthetics investigates new media, technologies and technoscientific methods (registering, collecting and interpreting data) in the arts in view of understanding their role and significance for the perception and awareness of the ecological. It intends both to bring the question of the technological into the ecological arts and to bridge the gap between them and to analyse current aesthetic idioms in the (techno-)ecological arts. The project is composed of two main parts: theory (analysis of various ecomedia art projects) and practice (aesthetic research relative to the alpine forest Pfynwald).

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Assuming that there is no escape from technology in our technosphere, the belief in technologies as tools in relation to information and potential assistance is widespread in both technophile and critical discourses of the Anthropocene. Embracing the paradox and connecting to techno-scientific methods of observing the world, many artists use technologies as sensors and methods, such as Big Data, to get in touch with what has been unknown for a long time. They try to ‘translate’ (i.e. making visible or audible) earthbound signals into human perception, in order to deliver information and establish new relations between non-humans and humans. But what exactly do ecomedia and ecodata deliver or narrate, and to whom do they do this? How do they affect us? Do they trigger care, solidarity, and empathy, as many scholars state? What kind of experiences are possible if a forest, the soil, the air turns out to be a contingent and relational techno-organism, dependent on various actors? And what happens, if the audience is no longer human only, but interspecially-correlated? How does art and its idioms cope with these challenges?

The project is composed of a theoretical and a practice part. In the theoretical part, project leader Yvonne Volkart analyses a number of international ecomedia projects. In scrutinizing their aesthetic idioms, she develops a techno-eco-aesthetics of relationality and care that goes beyond the technological.

In the practice part, the artists-researchers Marcus Maeder, Rasa Smite and Aline Veillat develop aesthetic projects relative to the alpine forest Pfynwald. This forest in the Valais (southwest Switzerland) has been under close surveillance by natural-scientists for more than 25 years. Systematic experiments with irrigation and their close observation by the natural-scientists characterize the Pfynwald not only as an outdoor laboratory, but also as one of the unique sites in the world, delivering relevant data regarding the effects of climate change on the viability of forests. The artists-researchers work in close cooperation with the scientific institute WSL. The theoretical and practice parts are closely intertwined, trying to challenge the dualism of theory and practice and so working towards an aesthetics of theorypractice or practicetheory. In short, the project tries to establish a multifaceted artefactual poetics of the more-than-human.

Artistic Research

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Exhibitions

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Dialogue Formats

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Research Team

Research Team

Meet the Team and view the detailed CVs and publication lists.

Project dates

Project-Duration:

2017-2020

Funding:

SNSF

Project leader:

Yvonne Volkart

Project team

Marcus Maeder, Rasa Smite, Aline Veillat

Project partners

The team works with partners from environmental fields of activity, the humanities and exhibition institutions in order to realize various dialogue formats that involve a broader public. The partners engaging in fields of ecology – universities, governmental departments, NGO’s – are embedded in a broad network of local and international protagonists. The close collaboration with the scientists of The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL during the research process generated an intense interdisciplinary dialogue and atmosphere of learning. They provided methods, data and tools which helped the artistic researchers to better understand and visualize the forces which drive forest growth and ecosystemic interactions in times of climate heating. The ongoing collaboration takes place in dialogue formats as conversations, workshops, texts, and the exhibitions at Centre culturel Suisse Paris, HeK, House of Electronic Arts Basel, LABoral Gijon, Rixc Center for New Media Culture, Riga, and ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

National

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
www.wsl.ch
Andreas Rigling, head of the research unit “Forest Dynamics” and member of the directorate, WSL
Arthur Gessler, Director of the Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF), WSL
Christian Ginzler, team leader Land Change Science and Remote Sensing, WSL

Institute of Integrative Biology, Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich
https://www.usys.ethz.ch
Christoph Küffer

USYS TdLab Transdisciplinarity Lab, Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
https://tdlab.usys.ethz.ch/de
Michael Stauffacher

Life Science AG
http://www.lifescience.ch
Daniel Küry; Marion Mertens

Amt für Umwelt und Energie AUE Basel-Stadt, Gewässerökologie
https://www.aue.bs.ch
Mirica Scarselli

Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology ICST, ZHdK
https://www.zhdk.ch/en/research/icst
German Perez

HeK Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel
www.hek.ch
Sabine Himmelsbach

International

Centre culturel suisse Paris
https://ccsparis.com/evenements/seeds-soil/
Claire Hoffmann

LABoral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial
http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/exposiciones/eco-visionarios
Karin Ohlenschläger

Leuphana University Luneburg
https://www.leuphana.de/institute/ipk/personen/christoph-brunner.html
Christoph Brunner

Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London
https://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/m-fuller/
Matthew Fuller

University of Helsinki, Departement of Forest Sciences
https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/kaisa-rissanen
Kaisa Rissanen

Rixc Center for New Media Culture, Riga
http://rixc.org
Raitis Smits

ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
https://zkm.de/en/exhibition/2020/05/critical-zones
Peter Weibel

Contact

University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
Academy of Art and Design
Institute Art Gender Nature IAGN

Dr. Yvonne Volkart

Freilager-Platz 1
Postfach
CH-4023 Basel 

T: +41 61 228 44 44 (central)
yvonne.volkart@fhnw.ch

Zusammenarbeit in Forschung und Dienstleistungen

Gestaltung und Kunst
Artistic ResearchForest ScienceDialogue FormatsExhibitionsTextsTeamPartnersForschungsprojekte IAGN
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Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN)

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel
Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN),
Ateliergebäude: A 1.10

Oslo-Strasse 3

4142 Münchenstein b. Basel

Telefon+41 61 228 40 77

E-Mailinfo.iagn.hgk@fhnw.ch

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