locus sonus > Conf > Future of the Lab

Peter Sinclair

The Future of the Lab

Baltan Laboratories

Eindhoven, 1 Dec. 2009

http://www.baltanlaboratories.org/?p=1420

THE FUTURE OF THE LAB

From November 30th until December 2nd, BALTAN Laboratories is hosting an international expert meeting titled The Future of the Lab at Strijp-S in Eindhoven. These three days bring together participants from media art labs and lab programmes worldwide - from Australia to Chile, to the Netherlands and Switzerland - to challenge and debate future strategies and forms of the laboratory (or media lab) and the importance of research and production spaces for artists and creative professionals working with technology.

BALTAN Laboratories, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, initiates, supports and disseminates innovative research and development activities in the field of art, technology and culture. A pilot initiative located in the SWA building at Strijp S in Eindhoven, it is a first step towards a broader Art Science Lab in the NatLab (former Philips physics laboratory). Eindhoven is a distinctive location for this type of laboratory, taking into consideration its world-renowned history and contemporary context that is manifested in such organisations as TU/e, the Design Academy, Van Abbemuseum and Philips (Design, Research).

More information about BALTAN can be found here: http://www.baltanlaboratories.org

As part of our Blueprint programme devoted to exploring the roles and models of the art and technology lab of the future, BALTAN Laboratories is organising a 3-day expert meeting from November 30 - December 2, 2009 to challenge and debate future strategies and forms of the laboratory (or media lab) and the importance of research and production spaces for artists and creative professionals working with technology.

The Future of the Lab provides opportunities for discussion and engagement with a diverse range of professionals on three layers: closed meetings for a dozen invited international guests only, semi-open meetings bringing in local, regional and national participants from a diversity of sectors, and a programme for the general public.

We will also commission a series of articles around the key questions of the meeting which will act as trigger pieces and engage a wide group online before the meetings. In collaboration with the participants of The Future of the Lab, BALTAN will also identify key topics for a follow-up expert meeting as well as some urgent areas of research to focus on in 2010. All discussions and results of the meeting are openly shared. The tentative list of international participants includes Monique Savoie (SAT, Montreal), Andreas Broeckmann (ISEA2010), Gisle Froysland (Piksel, Norway), Clare Reddington (iShed, Bristol, UK) and others. There are also participation from a number of Dutch media art organisations.

The Future of the Lab is made possible thanks to the support of the Mondriaan Foundation.

In collaboration with Virtueel Platform and BAM, the Flemish institute for visual, audiovisual and media art.

 

Participants - The Future of the Lab

November 30 - December 2, 2009

aan.net (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) - Annet Dekker, Annette Wolfsberger

Ars Electronica Futurelab (Linz, Austria) - Horst Hörtner, Director

BALTAN Laboratories (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) - Angela Plohman, Director / Artistic board: Gideon Kiers, Marc Maurer, Geert Mul and Lucas van der Velden

Culture Lab, Newcastle University (Newcastle, UK) - Atau Tanaka, Chair of Digital Media, Acting Director Culture Lab

Constant (Brussels, Belgium) - Wendy Van Wynsberghe

FoAM (Brussels, Belgium) - Nik Gaffney

iMAL Center for Digital Cultures and Technology (Brussels, Belgium) - Yves Bernard, Director

iShed (Bristol, UK) - Clare Reddington, Director

LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre (Gijon, Spain) - Benjamin Weil, Chief Curator; Lucia Garcia, Deputy Director

Le Laboratoire (Paris, France) - Caroline Naphegyi, Artistic Director

LaMe (Laboratorio Medial) (Santiago, Chile) - Ignacio Nieto

Locus Sonus (Aix-en-Provence, Nice France) - Peter Sinclair, Research Director

MAD Emergent Art Centre (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) - René Paré, Director

Medialab Prado (Madrid, Spain) - Marcos García, Programme

Medialab Utrecht (Utrecht, The Netherlands) - Levien Nordeman, Netniet.org

The Patchingzone (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) - Anne Nigten, Director

Piksel (Bergen, Norway) - Gisle Frøysland, Director

RMIT University (Adelaide, Australia) - Melinda Rackham, Emerging Artforms Curator, Adjunct Professor

Swiss artists in labs Program (Zurich, Switzerland) - Irene Hediger, Co-Director

Timelab (Ghent, Belgium) - Eva De Groote

U-centre for Art and Creativity (Dortmund, Germany) - Andreas Broeckmann, Founding Director

V2_Lab (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) - Boris Debackere, Lab Manager; Michel van Dartel, Curator/Project Manager

Waag Society (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) - Lucas Evers, Head of Programme

WORM (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) - Hajo Doorn, Walter Langelaar