This seminar event introduces the Pixelversity programme in Plektrum Festival in Tallinn, seeking new connections and strengthening friendships across the Gulf of Finland. The future proposal for the Pixelversity 2012 programme will be publically released, which focuses on network culture exchange between Estonia, Russia and Finland. Anticipating this process, Lilia Voronkova, researcher at the Art-(social) Science department in the Centre for Independent Social Research in St Petersburg, shares her insights and experience with the presentation 'Exploring Reality Together: Art-(social)' science projects.
Pixelversity – Läänemere suhtevõrgustiku loomine
Pixelache Helsingi festival toimub juba alates 2002. aastast ja on veidi vanem kui Plektrum festival, kuid esmakordselt 2011. aastal saab alguse tõsine suhtevõrgustiku loomine nii siin kui sealt poolt lahte. Tegemist on projekti Pixelversityga, mis on Pixelache Helsinki raames kogu aasta vältel aset leidev teavitus- ja haridusprogramm.
Kuna Pixelache Festival on suurim elektroonilise kunsti festival Põhja regioonis, pakkudes samas erinevat rahvusvahelist elektroonilise kultuuri kogemust, suhtlust ning eriti spetsialiseerub lähitulevikus teadus ja haridus väljunditele, siis on hea meel esimese koostöö projekt käima lükata Plektrum festivali 2011 raames. Tegemist on mitmekesise uurimisprogrammiga piirkonna naaberriikide: Soome, Eesti ja Venemaa partnereite vahel. Õpetus põhineb põhimõttel: tegutsedes õppides ja õppides tegutsedes.
Pixelversity eesmärk on olla nn. sild praktikute ja teoreetikute, mittetulunduslike ühingute ja indiviidide vahel ja paljude teiste vahel, kes sooviksid selles avatud programmis osa võtta. Programm ise kätkeb erinevaid tegevusi, kus rakendatakse erinevaid oskusi, mida anda edasi tulevikus Pixelache Festivali raames lähtuvalt festivali olemusest ja miks mitte samuti ka Eestis.
Esinevad:
* Andrew Gryf Paterson (Pixelache Festival Helsingi): "Learning & Networking around the Eastern Baltic Sea" Slides [9.1 MB]
* Lilia Voronkova (Iseseisev Sotsiaaluuringute keskus, St. Peterburg): "Exploring Reality Together: art - (social) science projects" Slides [2.6 MB]
ja sõbrad.
Uurimus reaalsusest: „Kunst-(Sotsiaal) teadus“ projekt Lilia Voronkova, CISR/vabakutseline, St.Peterburg, Venemaa
Lilia Voronkova jagab oma kogemust ning esitab projekti „Kunst-(Sotsiaal) teadus“, kus kohtuvad kunst- ja sotsiaalkriitilised teemad – visualiseerimine, esteetika ning teised piire ületavad lähenemisviisi avaliku ruumiga seoses. Ta teeb oma uuringut St. Peterburgis, Iseseisvas Sotsiaaluuringute Keskuses. Voronkova püüab julgustada valdkondadevahelist piiride ja nähtuste uuringut seoses lähtuvalt sotsiaalteaduslikust uurimismeetodist. Antud uurimuses löövad kaasa nii arhitektid, disainerid ja teised aktivistid, kellel kõigil on huvi avaliku ruumi vastu.
Pixelache Helsinki Festival has been going on since 2002, and has grown to be the largest Electronic Arts festival in the Nordic region, with a specialism in international networks and exchange.
Pixelversity is the outreach & education programme of Pixelache Helsinki scene around the year. From 2010 it has been possible to plan strategically and with funding, a curated pedagogy. This year and the following, an increased emphasis is placed on learning and networking with neighbouring and regional partners in Finland, Estonia and Russia. It could be equated as follows: PIXELVERSITY = PIXELACHE + DIVERSITY / UNIVERSITY.
Pedagogy is based on learning from experience and from peers: Learning by doing, and doing it together. Pixelversity aims to be a ‘learning bridge’ between practitioners, cultural and non-profit organisations, interested individuals and larger institutions, and an outreach programme extending beyond Helsinki. As a ‘curated pedagogy’ consideration is given to the relationships between the different activities, and how they may build up accumulative knowledge and skills towards future Pixelache Helsinki events, as well as strengthen the ability to engage in common issues with those nearby.
Participants:
* Andrew Gryf Paterson (Pixelache Helsinki): "Learning & Networking around the Eastern Baltic Sea" Slides [9.1 MB]
* Lilia Voronkova (Centre for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg): "Exploring Reality Together: art - (social) science projects" Slides [2.6 MB]
and friends.
EXPLORING REALITY TOGETHER: ART-(SOCIAL) SCIENCE PROJECTS
Presentation by Lilia Voronkova, CISR/freelance, St.-Petersburg, Russia
Abstract
Lilia Voronkova shares her insights and experience of developing projects within the "Art-(social) Science“department of the Centre for independent Social Research in St. Petersburg. Such projects reflect trends – visualization, aestheticisation, and an aspiration for inter / transdisciplinary approaches – which are encouraging social scientics to cross disciplinary borders and finding new ways of approaching the phenomena they study,using new ways of presenting the results of their research. They also reflect need for collaboration with other professionals and those active in social sphere, including artists, designers, architects, urban planners, grassroots activists and so on. The projects undertaken undertaken in the Art-(social) Science department in St. Petersburg have a distinct interest in public participation and public space issues.
Лилия Воронкова поделится своим опытом работы в области «трансдисциплинарных (арт-сайнс) проектов», объединяющих социальные науки и арт. На протяжении нескольких лет она работает в этой сфере на базе Центра независимых социологических исследований (ЦНСИ, www.cisr.ru, http://www.cisr.ru/art.html) и как фрилэнсер. Как социальны ученый, Лилия полагает, что подробные проекты – логическое следствие нескольких трендов, организующих развитие общества, социальных наук и искусства в последние десятилетия: визуализации, эстетизации и потребность в преодолении границ между различными дисциплинами и областями знания. В частности, со стороны социальных ученых в последнее время ощущается неудовлетворенность узкими дисциплинарными границами, препятствующими максимально полному и всестороннему пониманию изучаемых социальных феноменов. Этому стремлению социальных ученых соответствует встречное движение со стороны художников, дизайнеров, архитекторов, градостроителей, активистов и других профессионалов. Кроме того, арт-сайнс проекты содержат элемент ориентации на общественное участие и привлечение граждан к обсуждению актуальных социальных проблем. Соединение контента, произведенного социальными учеными с арт формами, заимствованными из искусства и дизайна, совместные проекты, реализованные учеными и художниками, способствуют более эффективному диалогу и мультилогу по поводу актуальных проблем современности.
Extended in English
One of the contemporary sociologists and philosophers Zygmund Bauman has named the world we live today a “liquid modernity”. He pointed, that today everything is changing: the world is transforming from the stability and solid structure to the plastic and liquid world that is free from fences and borders.
The Social sciences experience change today also. Many scientists are “reinventing their present and future” today: they are seeking new ways of approaching the phenomena they study and use new ways of presenting results of their research; they are thinking, working, presenting differently; and more and more of them find a need for the collaboration with other professionals, including ones from the art sphere. Following Julie Thompson Klein, who paraphrased famous anthropologist Clifford Geertz, something happens “to the way we think about the way we think”.
There are several global trends that could help us to understand – what makes classical disciplinary borders blurred and penetrable, what encourages scientists crossing them, leading to interdisciplinary projects. These trends are: visualization, aestheticisation and an aspiration for inter / transdisciplinary approaches. They are resulted in what I call “Art-(social) science” projects, which are aimed at the collaboration of social scientists and artists (as well as designers).
Such projects combine art and science: combine social science-driven investigations with the input and participation of professional artists. They could take the form of collaborative research which results are presented in the forms of exhibitions, events, festivals, etc. While a large part of their content is based on ideas and research produced in the social sciences, they incorporate knowledge and forms derived from the artistic sphere as well. This activity not only combines two different disciplines (“social science” itself includes several unique disciplines) but two different realms of knowledge and world-views. Thus trans-disciplinary projects could involve not only social scientists and artists but also other professionals – designers, architects, urban planners, grassroot activists and so on.
Art-(social) science projects allow producing new knowledge about the world we all live in – the knowledge that neither social scientists nor artists would be able to produce alone; they help in working out a common inter-disciplinary language, seeking mutual understanding; they teach the participants to be open-minded and tolerant towards the ways of thinking and doing, to the ideas and traditions of their colleagues, representing other disciplines and realms of knowledge; they produce a platform for the future collaborative projects.
I will show some examples of collaborative work between social scientists and artists realized within the work of “Art-(Social) Science” department in the Centre for independent Social Research in St. Petersburg.
