Social
Spaces

SupraSpace: On the Concept of Space and Place in Art and Visual Culture
International Conference
Tel Aviv University, Art History Department

June 3 – 04, 2012
Deadline CFP: Jan 15, 2012

Keynote speaker: Prof. Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Department of Art and
Archaeology, Princeton University

Space has been subject to aesthetic, art-historical, philosophical,
anthropological, geographical and political investigations, each with
its idiosyncratic definitions. Space maintains a close relation with
illusionism, narrativity, and the performative qualities of art.  Space
is especially interconnected with time, making it impossible to
separate one from the other. In the current dynamic reality in which we
live, it is hard to remain confined to just one modality of spatial
thinking that will capture all of its complexity; yet this problem is
not limited to our contemporary globalized moment, but is also relevant
to different historical periods. Consequently, in order to engage
effectively with the problem of space, recent studies have demonstrated
multiple methods of conceptualization, while emphasizing the
dialectical relations and tensions between them.
Within the realms of art and culture, the discourse on space has often
engaged with problems of representation (artistic genres such
landscape, narrative space, chronotopos, interior/exterior, etc), or
with political issues relating to territorial conflicts and borders.

In early ‘2011, the Media and Design faculty in Genk participated in the exhibition Alter Nature, where works from around twenty international artists explored how humankind manipulates nature. We got to know what synthetic biology is and how much more manipulative ‘design’ can be in this field. We also learned that as media designer or artist one can imagine and visualize a future with synthetic biology, which makes it interesting to collaborate with scientists. When me, (media) designer and a (graphic) designer where asked by our design school (MAD Faculty) to join the iGEM competition – a competition between universities on the topic of synthetic biology – we took advantage of this unique opportunity. Between June and November 2011 we collaborated with bioengineers and biomedical science students. In iGEM, teams make or use existing biological parts to build biological systems and operate them in living cells(1). For instance, a student team could be designing a microbe that detects toxic chemicals and outputs a corresponding color.

Social Spacer Rosanne van Klaveren has exhibited her FOOD RELATED work in progress at DeFKa during ‘INVESTIGATIONS on artistic research’ from 26 May till 18 June 2011. This exhibition opened with a conference day. Van Klaveren made an igloo shaped cake that was eaten by the participants from hand painted plates with hand written napkins before their debate about the practice of artistic research started. The cake functioned as an icebreaker, while the plates and napkins nourished the discussion.

After the conference reindeer soup was served from a Lada pot to all who wanted to try the daily food of the Nenets, a nomadic reindeer herding people in the North of the Russian Federation, while Van Klaveren explained her wish to drive her Lada Niva to this people as a gift.

Read more about this work in progress: www.foodrelated.org

Visit the website of DeFKa /SMAHK: www.smahk.nl

Call for papers:

Whose Participation? Spaces of Interaction in Contemporary Art and Architecture
December 16/17, 2011
Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, Switzerland
Organized by the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture
(gta), ETH Zurich

Phara de Aguirre (for Canvas, Belgian television) visits and interviews young artist Karl Philips in Hasselt, where he explains his caravan concept and surplus city guide on how to ‘survive’ in Hasselt’s public space.