ORGANIZED BY

PRO&CONTRA International Symposium
Moscow, October 8-11 2011; Krasnoyarsk, October 14-16 2011

The project is realized with Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation support
Under the patronage of Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation
Organized by "MediaArtLab" Centre for Art and Culture
Co-organized by Artplay on Yauza Design Centre
Partners: Royal Netherlands Embassy, Goethe Institut, Moskau, Austrian Cultural Forum

2011 Theme: Total Observer

“Today media constructs reality. Digital technologies change the society, politics and economics, but we are also changing with them. Technologies are extensions of our nervous system. We mutate gradually and become part of it. Under the pressure of the infinite number of cameras, stucked in the web, on one hand, we loose our freedom. But on the other - we expand our rights day by day via technological innovations. Art is not an outsider now, it's a trendsetter with new ideas and introduction into various fields is not directly connected to it. Only art with its intuition and power of imagination not limited by either discourse, or status, or norm becomes able to perceive the vague outlines of the future...”

Olga Shishko, PRO&CONTRA curator

Partners

General partner

Under the patronage of

Supported by

Open Society Institute

Красноярск

Площадка проведения

Hybrid Media

The PRO&CONTRA Symposium consists of six sections which include talks by theoreticians, artists, curators and public figures, as well as discussions, classes on various subjects and a presentation programme.

HYBRID MEDIA SECTION

Со-curated by Daria Parkhomenko, Director, curator of LABORATORIA Art&Science Space (Russia)

Cesar Harada. Open Sailing, 2009. Winner of the [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant Ars Electronica 2009. Project view. Courtesy of the artists

The main characteristics of hybrid art are its borderline nature, fluidity of forms, its use of research practices in which interdisciplinary creative groups are involved. Works of hybrid art are very sensitive to technological and scientific innovations and expand the borders of their comprehension. This type of art is frequently realized in the form of research or experiment, resulting in new forms: generative art, transgenic art, science-based performance strategies, robotic art, multiuser environments, virtual environments and so on.

In the course of the section’s work: talks by hybrid media theoreticians and practitioners, discussions of the subject and the best PRO&CONTRA OPEN CALL projects, presentation and discussion of VNEDRENIE (Introduction) science and art project.

The Kitchen Centre For Video, Music, Dance, Performance, Film And Literature. Photo: Jess Dang

OCTOBER 9

15.00 HYBRID MEDIA SECTION

Moderated by Daria Parkhomenko

Dmitry Bulatov (curator of Kaliningrad department of National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Russia) — Techno-Biological Art: The new state of living;
Attila Nemes (Program counsellor of The Kitchen medialab Centre, Hungary) — The only spicy innovation lab;
Dmitry Galkin (professor, media researcher, University of Tomsk, Russia) — Ideal subject of artificial life and aesthetics of hybrid media; 
Daria Parkhomenko (Director, curator LABORATORIA Art&Science Space, Russia) — Case study: Analysis of trends and winners in the nomination Hybrid Art at Ars Electronica Festival 2011.

17.00 HYBRID MEDIA SECTION — FROM AN IDEA TO THE EVOCATION

Panel discussion, moderators: Dmitry Bulatov, Daria Parkhomenko

Partisipants: Boris Debackere (V2 Unstable Media Institute, Netherlands), Kate Gandrabura (Special Projects Department, ROSNANO, Russia), Attila Nemes (The Kitchen medialab Centre, Hungary), Irina Aktuganova (Zimin Fund, Russia), Alexei Shulgin (Electroboutique, Russia), Alina Ignatova (MediaArtLab, Russia), Anna Belyaeva, Olga Barkovskaya (Independent curators, Russia), Mikhail Burtsev (Neurosciences department at the NBIC-centre — National Research Centre at Kurchatov Institute, Russia), Martin Honzik (Next Idea, Ars Electronica, Austria).
Online participants: Dietmar Offenhuber (artist, Austria), Oron Catts (art director of the «SimbioticA» Laboratory, Australia), Ksenia Fedorova (Senior Researcher, Ekaterinburg branch of the NCCA).

20.30 PRO&CONTRA OPENCALL — HYBRID MEDIA

Presentation and discussion. Projects of the 2011 nominees.

Julia Borovaya, Sergei Kasic, Vadim Smakhtin — "LIQUID ~ DO performance", Kawarga Dmitry — "Residual consciousnessstream-4", Bezshtanko Julia — "disappearance", Constantine Ager — "Memory of Rain".