Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico, authors of AOS – Art is Open Source, an International network that investigates, throughout a variety of practices, the invisible strata of the ubiquitous contemporary landscape, will guide, in the first days of May, a workshop at the Pistoletto Foundation in Biella (Turin, Italy). It will be possible to actively participate to their interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional practices, in this phase of their research particularly attentive to the human mutations in the ubiquitous realm (to which the title of the workshop Ubiquitous Infoscape refers to).
Here is the abstract of the workshop as it is expressed by its authors:
Data and information are everywhere. In our times, we constantly and ubiquitously generate data and information. The masses of data and information generated by others (people, objects, organizations and algorithms) radically transform our daily lives, the ways in which we work, relate to each other, express emotions, experience places and spaces, consume, do things together. Seamlessly augmented with information, the physical landscape becomes infoscape (a landscape of information). The module Ubiquitous Infoscapes combines experiential, theoretical, practice and performance based phases, each continuously flowing into the other.
The experiential sessions, aimed at expanding knowledge and imaginaries, will develop around case studies to unveil the many facets of the Ubiquitous Infoscape, how it radically transforms both our lives and our perception of the world, affecting public, private and intimate spaces, our rights, and our approach to knowledge-sharing, learning, expression and communication. Examples will be drawn from a wide spectrum of international practitioners, including artists, designers, hackers, architects and researchers, with a more in-depth focus on AOS and Human Ecosystems.
The theoretical sessions aim at broadening the understanding of the subject through discussing those issues (social, political, aesthetic, psychological, cognitive, anthropological) highlighted within the experiential sessions. We will explore the production of a number of theoreticians, researchers, writers and other influential figures, trying to discern the narrative(s) of the mutation of human beings in the age of ubiquitous information.
The practice and performance sessions aim at constructing a small – yet meaningful – artistic and creative production inspired by those instances discussed within the previous phases and highlighting one or more elements of the human mutation brought by the continuous emergence of Ubiquitous Infoscapes. In this phase we will create, and express ourselves, through texts, images, software, installation, movement, gestures and curious rituals.
Previous technical knowledge is not required. The artists will provide extensive support (even for writing small pieces of software) across all activities, ensuring active participation of all throughout all sessions. At the end of each day, an “ubiquitous ritual” will allow all participants to express themselves in meaningful ways.
[youtube id=”uCl_is3D8XM” width=”620″ height=”360″]
Ubiquitous Infoscape, immersive workshop at UNIDEE, May 4th – May 8th 2015
Città dell’Arte, in Biella, Italy
Images (1) Ubiquitousinfoscape, screen shot, Biella (Turin, Italy) (2) Salavore Iaconesi – Oriana Persico, Human Ecosystems, installation in Rome for the Naked City Festival